21 June 2013

Where did all the money go?

The $6,000,000 Question

Now that the SEC has won the fraud suit against Sean David Morton,

what ever happened to all of the money?

About one-hundred investors who invested over $6mil in what government regulators at the SEC called a "psychic scheme" designed to defraud, all have the same question: What happened to all of the money?

According to court documents, regulators at the SEC discovered that at least a quarter million dollars from this psychic investment fund established by Morton was diverted to Morton's so-called Prophecy Research Institute. This still leaves $5.75mil drifting somewhere and the fact that Morton never disputed the facts established by the SEC in civil court speaks volumes.

Let's say that some of the funds were indeed lost during some sort of investing, but how much was it really? What was the $250,000 that was diverted used for? Where did all of the money go? Has some of it been stashed? Did it all get spent? Is it sitting in an off-shore account somewhere? If anyone knows, they certainly aren't in a hurry to tell anyone.

In recent court filings by Sean David Morton and his co-defendant/accomplice/wife Melissa Ann Morton, they now claim to be destitute and unable to afford fees associated with appealing their loss to the SEC's allegations of fraud. Sean David Morton alone was ordered to pay more than $11mil in restitution, fee, and fines - or as the SEC calls it, disgorging ill gotten gains.

You can read the appeal filed by The Mortons here. In the appeal, The Mortons claim to have little to no income and allege that they could not file an appeal in a timely manner due to medical issues and "filing of bankruptcy due to financial ruin."

I wonder just how much forethought went into the financial ruin of some of their investors who lost their savings or retirement - I think it safe to venture little to none.

Yet it appears The Mortons can afford to go to Disneyland, hold season football tickets at USC, travel to conventions, host tours in foreign countries, and sell their goods among other activities.

The Mortons never appeared to actually dispute the charges
brought by the SEC, instead choosing to argue jurisdiction, venue, their
alleged status as ambassadors to the fictional Republic of New Lumeria,
and tossing accusations of government misconduct in a clearly contrived effort to somehow find a technical loophole from which to escape all the while assaulting the courts with a barrage of incoherent legal ramblings.